Research Guides: International Studies: Government Information

Official Communications & More

U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets
Descriptions of the history, geography, culture, government, politics, economics, climate, and transportation of nations worldwide. From the U.S. Department of State.

Much research in International Affairs relies heavily on official government sources of information, as well as materials from NGOs. There is a wide range of material, ranging from State Department cables & analysis, to Congressional hearings, reports & Executive Orders. Much of this is available to the public online or through subscription services.

United Nations: Official Documents and Bibliographic Databases
The United Nations has a wide range of resources. The official databases can be accessed at the link above.
Official Document System of the United Nations
ODS covers all types of official United Nations documentation, beginning in 1993. Older UN documents are, however, added to the system on a daily basis. ODS also provides access to the resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.
United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library
The official library of the United Nations, with extensive, publically available holdings.
U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Economic, Energy & Business Affairs
On this site you will find links and resources for all of these tools and the ways the U.S. Department of State and EEB are engaged to implement U.S. foreign economic policy. Reports on nations worldwide using data supplied by US embassies. Includes the archives 2009-1993.
List of Foreign Governments
Excellent site maintained by the government docs librarians at Northwest University.
Country Studies
Online versions of 80 books previously published in hard copy by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress as part of the Country Studies/Area Handbook Series.

Websites

The internet also allows for researchers to access a wide range of resources: academic, government, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of every kind: political, educational, environmental or humanitarian.

Prime Minister of India
An example of a government website.
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
An example of an academic website.

Example NGOs include:

Other international institutions maintain informative websites, such as:

United Nations
Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
One-stop shop for OECD work on each of the organization's 30 member countries. Visitors can widen their research, compare the results of a specific country with other OECD economies, and be kept informed of the most recent OECD documents and publications relating to that country.
The World Bank
Nation Master
For comparative statistics with data sets for 305 countries.